Film and Media Studies

Professors: Chatton, Hahn, Haus, Heinritz, Kim, Koehler, Koenig, Latiolais, Lopez-Malagamba, Pillai (Director, Winter and Spring 2025), Powers, Sinha (Director, Fall 2024), Smith, Thomas, Weng, White

The Film and Media Studies concentration at Kalamazoo College offers an interdisciplinary, liberal arts approach to the study of film. We seek to engage critically with aesthetics, history, reception, race, gender, and class in production and consumption as well as issues of ethics, politics, and economics. We explore mainstream as well as oppositional forms and are investigators of film representation in the broadest sense: visually, aurally, and verbally.

Advanced Placement (AP) and International Baccalaureate (IB) credit may not count toward the concentration but may be applied toward the total number of units needed to graduate.

Units from Study Abroad and Transfer Credit

Students may receive up to one unit of credit toward the concentration for a class taken on study abroad or at another institution. The course must first receive approval from the director of the concentration.

Requirements for the Concentration in Media Studies

Number of Units

Six are required.

Required Course

ENGL 153 RTW: Classical Hollywood (offered twice yearly, cap of 25)

Five additional courses from any of the categories below. At least two of the five courses must have film as their primary focus. The courses with a film focus have been marked with an asterisk (*).

History/Theory/Criticism

  • *ANSO 295 Society on Film
  • ARTH 224 Art Since 1945
  • ARTH 227 Modern Art Museum
  • *ARTH 290 Art and Gender
  • ARTH 491 Ways of Seeing
  • * ENGL 262 Feelings and Sensations at the Movies
  • * ENGL 434 Advanced Film Theory
  • MUSC 155 Western Art Music after 1750
  • PHIL 208 19th Century Philosophy
  • PHIL 214 Philosophy of Art
  • PHIL 306 Philosophy of Language
  • PHIL 311 Postmodern Critical Theory
  • *RELG 232 Jedi, Sith, and Mandalorians: Religion and Star Wars
  • THEA 270 Theatre of Illusionism

Applied

  • ARTX 110 Design Fundamentals
  • ARTX 115 Digital Photography
  • *ARTX 200 TV Studio Production (1/4 credit)
  • *ARTX 213 Digital Art: Animation and Video
  • ARTX/SEMN 214 Framing Difference
  • ARTX 230 Analog Photography
  • *ARTX 250 Introduction to Documentary Video Production
  • *ARTX 301 Advanced Documentary Video Production
    ARTX 316 Intermediate Photograpy
  • ENGL 205 Narrative Journalism
  • ENGL 207 Arts Journalism
  • MUSC 105 Introduction to Music
  • THEA 120 Fundamentals of Acting
  • THEA 210 Lighting Design
  • THEA 225 Developing a Character
  • THEA 255 Playwrighting
  • THEA 380 Directing I with Lab
  • THEA 420 Advanced Acting with Lab
  • THEA 480 Advanced Directing

 International Media

  • * CHIN 245 Chinese Film and Culture
  • ENGL 260 African Cinemas of Belonging
  • ENGL/SEMN 264 Global Shakespeares
  • *FREN 435/490 Adv Lit & Cultural Studies (Topics: Cinema, A Modern Angora; Francophone Cult(ure) Movies; Space and Identity in French Cinema) (taught in French)
  • *GERM 200 Myth of a Nation: German Film
  • * GERM 420 Introduction to German Cinema (taught in German)
  • * HIST/RELG/SEMN 268 Jews on Film
  • * JAPN 240 Japanese Culture through Film
  • * JAPN 250 Manga/Anime and Gender in Modern Japan
  • * RELG 231 Religion, Bollywood, and Beyond
  • * SPAN 401 The Spanish Speaking World on Film (taught in Spanish)
  • SPAN 445 Visual Practices in Latin America (taught in Spanish)

* denotes courses with a film focus